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Welcome to my blog, where I share my love of books and anything bookish, including my own novels every now and then, but mostly I share **Book Blog Tours** **Author Features** **Guest Posts** **Book Blitz's** **Give-Aways** and **Competitions**

What will we do when suddenly our power,
our phones, and our cars don't work? What will we do when we realize our
government is missing and we have no protection; no police, no national guard?
What will we do when our food runs out or spoils, and fresh water becomes
scarce? What will we do when we realize we are completely and undeniably on our
own? What could possibly happen next?

What happens when IT happens?

Follow an ordinary man, Bill Carlson,
through the first 30 days of the ensuing uncertainty. From his once quiet, now
violent, St. Paul suburb; to the empty, and yet deadly, county roads of west
central Wisconsin.

With limited knowledge of prepping, Bill
must rely on neighbors for help. Why did he never pay attention to his “crazy
doomsday” neighbor Scott? Now that the world, at least his world, is dark, Bill
has so many questions. How can he possibly survive in this dark dystopian
world?

Bill goes in search of his family, and
finds so much more. Friendly people in small towns, other villages that allow
no strangers, people searching for help, and people looking to take anything
you might have – via any means.

Will Bill find his family, some 300 miles
away? Will the power come back on after mysteriously going out? Will he be able
to help others in times of need, much less himself?

Buddy (my dog) was okay by himself, so I
rode up to City Hall to look for new postings. The only change on their door
was the fact they took down the old sign. Nothing new, nothing at all, was on
the door.

A nice older woman stared at me staring at
the blank door. She looked at me for answers. “I suppose this means they’ve
given up?”

“I don’t know what it means. At least we
know someone has been here in the past 24 hours. Maybe that’s a good sign.” I
tried to give her a nice smile, but she frowned and looked again at the door,
only down this time. There, lying on the ground was the paper someone posted a
week ago. The tape must have let loose. I shook my head.

“I wonder what we’re supposed to do? What we
should be doing? What we might need to prepare for?” The nice woman with
snow-white hair sighed deeply when she finished.

I wished I had words of encouragement for
her. “I’ll be honest, I’m starting to worry a little bit, ma’am.” I looked down
at her. I’m almost six feet tall. She was a good nine inches shorter than me,
and rail thin. “Most of the police are up by the bank and grocery store. I’m
afraid if they weren’t there, those places would get looted. That doesn’t leave
much for the rest of us.” She slowly nodded as I spoke. “I suppose our city
officials are home taking care of what’s theirs. Just like the rest of us. I
don’t know why we’d expect them to be any different. Especially if they weren’t
sure about what’s happened.” My usual optimism dwindled. I wasn’t feeling so
confident any more, how could I convince anyone else to be positive?

The older woman left quietly. She didn’t
have anything to add. Unlike before, there were very few people coming to City
Hall for information any more. I felt most had given up on their government.
How long could I hold out? As I rode home, I thought more of my food supply. I
still had enough, but for how long? I had a month of food, maybe two, but
certainly not much longer. I needed a food source for the future, one that could
last a long time. I suppose I needed a garden but at this time of year? It was
too late to plant anything. I wasn’t even sure I could find seeds anywhere. And
what would I do for meat after that?

Once back home, I grabbed a warm beer and
plopped down on the back porch to think. Buddy nuzzled nearby, and I felt a
little better. Man’s best friend was still around, that helped. We were in
trouble here. It was as plain as the nose on Buddy’s black face. Food couldn’t
last forever, who knew how much clean water was around, sanitation was a joke,
and it was obvious now that we were alone and on our own. Surrounded by what
was once everything we could ever need, we now saw just how little we all
possessed.

-●-●-●-●-●-●-●-●-●-

Author Interview:

Hi Lake and welcome to my blog

Firstly can you tell us about yourself?

I love to start with the easy
questions, Bella. I’m just a regular guy. I have a regular family (3 grown
children and 3 young grandchildren), I have a regular everyday job (CFO for a
small creative company), regular pets (two dogs, one cat), and a normal average
life. I’ve been married to the same woman 34 years this July.

I
love spending time outdoors. Walks in the spring, fishing and relaxing at the
cottage (on a lake) during the summer, and spending time in the fall outdoors
at some property my family owns about 200 miles south of where I live.

I
watch a lot of (American) football in the fall (when I’m not sitting in a tree
watching deer), my wife and I have several shows we enjoy together (The Walking Dead, When Calls the Heart, Under
The Dome), we’re both avid readers digesting five to six books a month. And
of course, we love spending time with our family – all nine of them.

How long have you been writing?

I wrote a lot back in high school, but
that was many years ago. I actually began this journey on January 23, 2013.
That’s the day that I finally tossed aside my self-doubt and said, “I am going
to do this.” So, I guess that means I’ve been writing seriously for about 15
months.

In
the past 15 months, I have written well over 500,000 words. Currently, I have
one published novel, WWIV – In The
Beginning, and four completed manuscripts in various forms of editing and
rewriting. I thought this journey would be a one and done. I wanted to write a
novel, but I never had plans on writing anything further. Once I completed the
first manuscript, another began flowing through my mind. And then another, and
another. It’s a lot more fun than I ever thought it could be.

What inspired you to start writing novels for your chosen
genre?

In
high school, I read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. That was the first time I had ever read
something dark. His life is the Soviet prison camp really opened my eyes to the
idea of Big Brother, and what dystopia meant. After that, I read George
Orwell’s classic 1984. I was hooked.

For
the past thirty years, I always told myself that after the age of 50, I was
going to construct a novel. And if I was going to dedicate as much time as I
knew it would take, I wanted to write in my favourite genre.

The
idea of creating an alternate world, using the one we live in, is just so
appealing. I mean, there’s nothing to constrain your imagination. You can have
an evil government(1984) or no government (Lord
of the Flies). As long as you research what could happen, you’ll come up with an interesting tale of what will happen.

Are you working on anything new right now and can
you tell us more?

Currently, I am focusing on two
projects. First, I am wrapping up the second book in the WWIV series. Its entitled Kids
at War. Now, please don’t fret. I’m not taking a bunch of children and
turning them into soldiers. What I’ve done in book two, is take a group of
young teens and place them in an almost unimaginable situation (and that was
fun). It’s almost six years after whatever happened, happened. The manuscript is complete and about ready to go to my
editor for his input.

The
second project on my plate is wrapping up a rewrite of the very first
manuscript I ever created (the one that began this journey for me) – Golden 5. That novel will be part of a
four books series called The Smith
Chronicles. It’s almost twice as long as anything in my WWIV series, so it’s quite a monster. I
hope to have that book ready for publication sometime this fall (2014). Further
information, on this book and series, can be found at my website.

Can you offer any advice to the fledgling authors,
just starting out?

Sure,
I love giving advice. Once you finish reading this interview, put everything
else away and start writing. You already have some idea in your head as to what
you want to write about. So start writing. Write until your fingers cramp up.
Write until you think you can’t write another word, and then write a little
more. Use your creative time wisely. Don’t worry about what anyone else may
think of your endeavour. Write!

Now,
when you finish it will most likely be pretty rough. But that’s okay. That’s why
they call the first draft a rough draft after all. Heck, I call mine rough
drafts through versions 2, 3, and 4. But here’s what I want you to do with that
rough draft. Give it to someone to read. Your wife, your husband, your bother
or sister, your roommate, even your mother. Let them read it and DO NOT
apologize for it up front. I can tell you from experience, you will most likely
be pleased with what they have to say.

If you could Time Travel - what year would you visit and why?

Easy.
The early 1860s in the eastern United States. Right about the start of our
Civil War. There’s so much history to learn about this time period. I would
just love to be there with all the greats of history, as well as just your
average everyday citizen. I can only imagine the varied opinions I would
discover from all the different people I would meet.

This travel would also allow me the
chance to meet some of the great minds of that time. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry
David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ambrose Bierce, just to name a few. What a thrill and honour it
would be, sitting and chatting with them. Picking their minds on everything
from government, to religion, and war. I just think it would be thrilling.

How do you come up with the Titles for your novels?

Whoa,
wait a second. Why did I choose this question? Sheez, let me think. I chose WWIV as a series for two main reasons.
1) I have always been drawn to Einstein’s famous quote about World War 4. It’s
in the beginning of my book or you can look it up on line. 2) When I research WWIV as a book title I found nothing. I
really wanted something unique, thus I chose that. Now the sub-titles were
easy. In the Beginning is obvious.
That book deals with what goes on, well, in the beginning. Kids at War just came to me one day as I was dreaming up the plot
in my mind. I think it’s a real natural fit.

Funny
side note: the first manuscript I wrote was untitled until the day I finished
the first draft. At the time, I quickly gave it the title Village for 5. But that turned out to be to bland and non-descript.
I mean who’d ever buy a book with that title. It took some thought and a lot of
bouncing ideas off a whole lot of people. But I finally settled on Golden 5 several weeks into the first
rewrite.

What is your preferred method of writing:-The plot pre-planned from day one, or just go
with the flow and see what happens next?

The first step to every manuscript I create is to
throw down a general outline. It’s nothing formal or complicated. This outline
serves as a guide as I move into the actual writing process. Next, I create
each character in detail. Name, height, weight, hair color, eye color,
personality, birthdate, parent’s names, hometown, education, etc…

I
refer to my outline as I write to be sure I get all the major scenes covered.
And I try to highlight (in the outline) two or three main ideas I want to get
across in each chapter. But it’s my characters that run the show. They take me
to some of the wildest places I could ever imagine. I find it funny how they
take over the novel and it seems like I’m just along for the ride.

Do you have any weird writing rituals? (Such as,
you can only start writing after you’ve scoffed all the choc-chip cookies and
drank 3 cups of full-caff coffee? Or
only after you’ve listened to a certain song or playlist? etc… do share)

Short
answer – no. I can write anywhere at any time. I don’t need any props or
special tools. Just my computer and maybe a good Internet connection. Once in a
while I’ll listen to some “pump me up” music just before beginning. Something
like It’s My Life by Bon Jovi. But
that’s more the exception than the rule. I’m not superstitious and I don’t
believe in luck or circumstance. I just try to confidently move my way through
the writing process, with the ultimate goal being to give the reader a decent
novel that they will appreciate and enjoy.

Do you have any input in the Cover design of your
novel?

I usually have a pretty good idea for my covers.
Something that comes to me during the writing process. I rough it out and get
opinions from my family before deciding the exact direction I want to head.

I worked on the cover for WWIV – In The Beginning with Laura La Roche at LLPix Design. I supplied
her with the general idea of what I wanted; simple block letters to grab the
reader’s attention, an ambiguous title, and muted standing corn in the
background. Corn becomes a big part of the novel.

It took
Laura and I several rounds to fine-tune things, but with the input of my
family, and a lot of patience from Laura, we were finally able to get it just
perfect.

How many novels/books do you typically read in a
month?

Thus far in 2014, I have read 21
books. That’s about seven a month I suppose. Some are long like Ender’s Game. Some are shorter like A Murder, A Mystery, and A Marriage.Typically about half of what I read is in the dystopian genre. And I
cover the whole range there. Ayn Rand, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and
self-published independent authors to boot.

When not in that genre I moved around as much as I can.
Thrillers, action and adventure, suspense, even a few romance and what are
considered chick lit. I like to see what others are creating and how they do
it. That’s the only way I know how to learn in this business. The grammar and
structure can be found almost anywhere; the hard and fast rules or writing that
is. But other authors demonstrate, through their writings, how they get their
point across. How they move action ort conflict along. How to pace a serious
conversation. That’s what being well read helps me with.

How long does it typically take for you to write a
novel?

I began writing this book on July 14, 2013. I finished the
last sentence, of the first draft on September 4, 2013. That’s 52 days of
creation. Fifty-two days to create a 72,500 word fiction novel. After that, of
course, came rewrites, edits, more rewrites, beta-reading and one final round
of clean up work. It was finally published on March 27, 2014. So from first
word to published novel was close to eight and a half months.

I have also written two large
manuscripts. The first was about 125,000 words and the second was 152,000. These
took slightly longer. Eight or nine weeks if I recall correctly. But that’s
still fairly quick because I play the story through my head hundreds of times
before I ever write the first word. That makes the rough draft fly.

I should note that I just finished a
60,000+ manuscript for a later book in the WWIV
series during February. That one only took me 24 days to write. And let me tell
you, it redefines what is meant when we say “rough draft”.

Tell us one thing that no-one else knows about you
– your darkest secret if you dare!

Okay.
But you have to promise not to share this with anyone. It’s a secret after all.
Deep inside my dark soul lies a hopeless romantic. There, I’ve said it. Now
please, wipe it from your memory. I have an image to maintain.

In
all seriousness though, I really am soft-hearted person. And romance gets me
every time. I swear I tear up every episode when watching When Comes The Heart. It’s a series based on Janette Oke’s same
titled novel.Every time something
dramatic happens between Mountie Jack and Elizabeth, I get choked up. I have no
idea why. It just happens. I’m going to have to start watching that series
alone, instead of with my wife (although she’s nice enough not to make fun of
me).

Can you tell us why you think we’d love to read
your novel?

We’re
dealing with humanity here, our humanity. Someone asked me the other day if
this wasn’t just another “end of the world, doomsday” novel. I smiled for a
quick second and told him no. There’s no end of the world here, the world will
be just fine. It’s our humanity we need to be concerned about.

I
have been painstakingly meticulous to detail in this novel. I don’t ever want
the reader to have to disengage their belief system at any time in any of my
books. It has to be believable to be good. One beta reader, a total stranger to
me, said this: “I didn’t think I would like your book, but once I got past
chapter 5, I couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed it.”

Let
me close with a quote from my 81-year-old mother. She had this to say about the
tale which I tell: “I finished reading the book that you sent
me, couldn't stop when I got toward the end. Was a late night for me.
It made me anxious and concerned. I couldn't go to sleep, I had to
get up and have some cocoa and a graham crackers!” And that woman reads Mary
Higgins Clark novels.

I
promise you this ­– even if you don’t think you like dystopian tales, you won’t
be able to put this book down. There’s something inside for almost every reader
(though I wouldn’t recommend it for younger children).

-●-●-●-●-●-●-●-●-●-

Very many thanks to Lake for joining us today with his fabulous dystopian novel and for the awesome interview! Be sure to add his novel to your TBR @Goodreads, I am.

GoodReads

The Seraphoenix Saga Book I

The Seraphoenix Saga Book II

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About Me

I've always loved books, and I've been penning stories for as long as I can remember. However, I have been writing seriously for the last few years, completing several published novels under a pseudonym before I started to write for the Young Adult paranormal genre.
I'm an avid reader too, and spend a lot of time at Amazon.co.uk looking at all the new releases and adding more books to my ever growing collection on a weekly basis. Now I just need the time to get through the back-log.
One thing I can't live without is Post-it Notes, in all different colours too, I'm a Post-it Note Addict!
I also love animals and would love a small farm one day so that I could rescue waifs, strays and orphans.